In order to cause the presence of a two-wheeled vehicle to be recognized by other drivers, in some areas, the driver of a two-wheeled vehicle is required to drive with the vehicle's lights on during both the day and night. To further address this visibility issue, developments have been made for vehicle recognition systems in which the presence of a vehicle equipped with such an apparatus is recognized by another vehicle and the recognizing vehicle performs a predetermined control process, or alternately, a vehicle equipped with such an apparatus first recognizes the presence of the other vehicle and then executes a predetermined control process.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 10-115519 proposes a vehicle position recognition system wherein a preceding vehicle is provided with three or more infrared LEDs facing rearwardly, and a following vehicle is provided with a camera whose field of view encompasses the rear face of the vehicle body of the preceding vehicle. Based on an infrared image of the preceding vehicle taken by the camera of the following vehicle, the distance between the vehicles and relative motion are determined.
However, in vehicle recognition systems which utilize infrared light, it is necessary to accurately and immediately recognize whether infrared light detected by an imaging device of the recognizing vehicle is a proper signal-light emitted from a light emitting element for vehicle recognition, or just infrared light from an extraneous source. This requires a sophisticated image processing function within the recognizing system.
In addition, in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 10-115519, the infrared LEDs to be recognized need to be disposed at a plurality of places on the preceding vehicle. However, when the preceding or oncoming vehicle is a two-wheeled vehicle, it is difficult to locate the infrared LEDs so that an accurate vehicle distance and relative motion can be determined. Furthermore, it is difficult to arrange a number of infrared LEDs without detracting significantly from the aesthetic beauty of the vehicle.
The present disclosure discloses a vehicle recognizing apparatus which solves many of the problems associated with existing vehicle recognizing apparatuses.